Lula vows to scrap Brazil's Bets Law before election runoff

Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is set to announce a complete reversal of the country's Bets Law on Friday 25 September, according to reports carried by O Globo and Folha de S.Paulo.

Both outlets said Lula confirmed the move a day earlier during a gathering of economic ministers in São Paulo, a session originally convened to unveil measures aimed at shielding households from inflation and had not been billed as a forum for betting policy.

The timing places the announcement roughly a week and a half ahead of the first round of Brazil's presidential election on 4 October, with a runoff to follow should no candidate secure an outright majority.

Lula's Workers Party government has argued that the regulated betting market, in operation since 1 January 2025, pushed an estimated 1.8 million Brazilians into debt last year, with the burden falling hardest on households reliant on welfare support.

Industry trade bodies in Brazil have disputed that figure. The country's central bank, while stopping short of ruling out betting as a factor, has instead identified rising credit card borrowing as the principal driver of household debt.

Brazilian football clubs, including Corinthians, Palmeiras, São Paulo, Santos, Flamengo, Fluminense, Botafogo, Vasco and Cruzeiro, issued a joint appeal this week urging Lula to abandon any ban, warning that the loss of betting sponsorship deals would hit club finances hard.

Lula rejected the request, telling the clubs that Brazilian football could function without betting money and describing the relationship that had built up between leagues and operators as toxic.

The stance leaves operators with little political cover heading into the vote. Liberal Party candidate Flavia Bolasaro, Lula's main rival, has separately pledged to ban online casinos if elected.

Lula has previously called himself "no friend" of the betting industry and had floated advertising restrictions before elevating his rhetoric this month to a promised "drastic measure" targeting online casinos and tightening rules on sports betting. That position has since hardened further into a pledge to unwind the entire Bets Law, the framework Lula himself signed off in 2024 despite what SBC News described as his own reservations at the time.

According to local reporting cited by SBC News, Lula has decided a total ban is needed to nip the problem in the bud, framing it alongside other campaign commitments including scrapping the so-called Blushina tax on low-value imports and lifting the Bolsa Familia welfare payment by 15%.

The regulated market has expanded rapidly since launch, with close to 200 licensed betting websites now operating in Brazil. Greece's Betano and Romania's Superbet have built strong positions, and UK operator Entain highlighted progress at its Sportingbet brand in Brazil during half-year results earlier this year.

A ban would strike a heavy financial blow to those operators. It would also cost the Brazilian treasury directly: the Federal Revenue Service recorded R$8.7bn (£1.2bn) in tax contributions from regulated betting firms between January and July 2026.

Much of that revenue is likely to migrate back to the black and grey markets that operated before regulation and have continued to compete alongside licensed firms since 2025.

Three bills already sit before Brazil's Congress covering different versions of a crackdown. PL 2,972/2026 would repeal the Bets Law outright and ban fixed-odds betting entirely. PL 4,977/2026 would bar betting advertising and sports sponsorship while letting existing licences run out. PL 2,470/2026 takes a narrower line, targeting high-risk online casino products and restricting marketing and sponsorship deals.

The shape of any new regime will depend on negotiations after the election and which political coalitions gain the upper hand in Congress.